The Best Medicine
by Pagan Ianthe
Summary: After being rejected by her boyfriend Luna decides to join her father on an excursion in the Amazon; what she finds there isn't exactly what she expects.
1. The Best Medicine

**Disclaimer:** These characters are the property of JKR, I make no claim on them (though the situation is mine) and I make no money from the publication of this story. 

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"What are you doing out here?" He sat down on the bench beside her, stretching an arm along the back to tangle in her hair. "I expected you to be living it up with the girls on the dancefloor." He studied her profile, noting the drying tear tracks on her cheeks.

"I don't know," she told him, shrugging her shoulders and refusing to meet his eyes, "I guess I didn't feel like it."

"Since when don't you like to dance?" He playfully tugged on a lock of her hair, stunned when she moved away from him, rather than closer as he had intended. "Obviously there's something wrong. Why don't I go and get one of the Lions from in there as it's clear you don't want to talk to me?"

"That's right," she half-laughed. "Run away when things get all emotional." She muttered the words under her breath, but they were loud enough for him to hear.

"Is that what this is all about? Merlin, Butterfly, I never said I didn't _want_ to talk about it, just that, with everything going on, now wasn't the best time."

"What if now is the only time?" she finally turned to face him, and for the first time he noticed the nervous way that she was rubbing the hem of her t-shirt between her fingers. "What if we _have_ to talk about it now?"

He gave a rather undignified bark of laughter, "Sweetheart, you're making me nervous."

"Have you ever noticed," she responded, her voice wistful, "that when you're trying to distance yourself from someone you don't use their name anymore?" She had turned her attention back to her hands, watching the moonlight reflecting off the glitter in her nail varnish.

"Have you been drinking the punch? I saw one of those red-haired nuts putting something in it when we got here."

"Merlin, you really are the King of Avoidance aren't you? The minute anything you don't want to talk about is mentioned you just change the subject."

He had never seen her like this before; there was clearly something on her mind, but she was right, if he could avoid things that had the potential to get messy or complicated then he would simply change the subject.

"Look, I get it okay? I understand that you like things easy." She leaned across and gave him a peck on the cheek; he could feel the tears on her face as her skin brushed his, and for a moment he felt a pain in his chest when she got up. "Be happy," she told him as she stroked her fingers lightly across his lips.

He swallowed down the urge to call her back when, instead of walking back into the house she headed down the hedge-lined pathway, and a few moments later he heard the unmistakable crack of Apparition.

The moment she arrived back at her small cottage she headed into her bedroom and changed into a pair of comfortable jogging bottoms and a baggy t-shirt; cast a cleaning charm over the clothes she had been wearing and then dropped them into a pile waiting to be folded.

For a while she fluttered around the room, gathering up everything that she would need; shampoo, mosquito spray and face cream, all her clothes and a few reference books that wouldn't get damaged by being shrunk to fit in a suitcase that had been round the world twice and back again. Dropping the items into the battered blue leather case she had dragged out from deep in the wardrobe, she checked the list she always had on hand in case a last minute thing came up, and started on the folding; she had a lot to do and not much time to do it in.

Until she had seen Blaise with his lips all over that Quidditch-playing friend of Ginny's she hadn't given her father's invite to join him on his latest Amazon adventure a second thought; but the moment she realised that she cared far more for him than he cared for her the decision had almost been made for her; the way he had shown her how little she meant to him had given her exactly the push she needed.

The Amazon was hot and sticky, and Luna was very glad of the distraction that her father's fascination with rare and odd creatures provided her. From the moment she'd arrived at the Tefé Portkey hut she had been kept busy, and she'd loved every distracting moment; organising supplies, finding a guide, and making sure that they had everything they needed to ensure there weren't any avoidable accidents. The expedition team was a small one made up of lepidopterists, arachnologists and her father; they were all hoping to find new or rare species and study them in their natural habitats. Despite finding her father's unusual hobby fascinating, Luna knew that she was using this trip as nothing more than a distraction.

They had been travelling for nearly six weeks; having made only a few small discoveries that could be considered interesting in that entire time, but no one was ready to return to their mundane lives, so they had moved onward and continued the search, travelling deeper and deeper into the forest. It was during one of their rarer visits to a small village to pick up supplies that they had managed to pick up someone new; he made Luna feel both uncomfortable and oddly excited at the same time, his face ringing a small bell of recognition, but she had so far been unable to put her finger on why. She did her best to avoid being alone with him, though he seemed to constantly seek out her company; sitting beside her at meals and following her when she would wander off to escape from the almost constant talk about creepy crawlies.

"What do you want?" She had been doing her best to simply ignore him for a few days but the fact that he had been following her everywhere was starting to get on her nerves, and this latest stalker activity – following her to the makeshift shower tent – was the last straw.

"Who says I want anything at all?"

For only the second time in her life, Luna had an overwhelming urge to punch someone, but she managed to restrain herself, instead taking a few deep breaths and staring off into the distance. "You've been following me," she stated matter-of-factly, the expression on her face one she would normally save for a recalcitrant child or someone incredibly daft.

"Not necessarily," he grinned, pleased that she had given up the pretence of ignoring him. "You just happen to be going in the same direction as me." He had no idea what had made him come to South America, but the moment he had seen her with the ragtag group of insect weirdos he had known he simply had to join the expedition.

"My God," she shrieked, ignoring the birds that were started from the trees at the sound. "You are so annoying!" She stamped her foot in frustration and headed back in the direction of the main camp even though she really wanted that shower; she had been imagining the feel of the lukewarm water flowing over her heat-sticky skin for hours.

Xeno watched as his daughter literally stomped back in the direction of her tent and was unable to hold back a grin. It had been impossible not to notice that she had arrived in Tefé with a cloud hanging over her head, something had clearly been wrong; but the moment the new adventurer with his wallet full of currency and a somewhat reckless desire to jump in feet first had arrived at the camp he had seen her fire return, and for that he was incredibly grateful. For a moment, he thought to interfere when he saw Marcus follow Luna into her tent, but he realised that they needed to sort whatever was wrong out between them.

Luna was sitting at her makeshift desk when Marcus lifted the curtain and barged into the tent. He leaned against the edge of the table and watched her as she made agitated doodles in a leather-covered notebook. When he realised that she wasn't going to pay him any attention he jogged the desk and coughed, loudly.

"What?" she barked as she slammed the notebook closed and turned her head to glare at him; her silver eyes flickered with annoyance and Marcus found himself fascinated by the change. She really was stunning; even more so when she was irritated – a mood that seemed to frequently occur when they were around each other.

"We didn't finish our talk," he informed her, trying his hardest not to smirk as he was wont to do when he was aware that he was annoying someone.

"Go away," she told him as she did her best to show that he wasn't having any kind of effect on her and, using the pointed tip of her quill, she poked at his hand in an effort to get him to move. Unfortunately for her, his many falls from a broom had prepared him for many levels of pain and this was nothing in comparison with a broken collarbone or cracked pelvis.

"You don't really mean that," he responded, a laugh in his voice; he lifted his hand to his mouth and sucked at the tiny mark she had inflicted, before reaching down and taking the quill from her and putting it in the front pocket of his trousers. "You can have that back when I know you're not going to try and dismember me with it."

Luna sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment; she liked to think of herself as a rational person – most of the time – but something about Marcus drove her batty, and she wanted nothing more than to punch him in his smug face…and then kiss it better! "I'll scream," she stated, her calm tone not giving any indication of the turmoil she was feeling.

At that Marcus was no longer able to hold in the laughter; he leaned back and his low chuckle filled the small tent. "Of course you will, princess, and I have no doubt that a knight will charge in on a white horse." Unable to resist, he leaned across the desk and twined his fingers around a curl of her silver-blonde hair, watching the way the sun changed its colour and enjoying the way that she closed her eyes and unconsciously moved her head closer to his thigh when he tugged on it a little. So; she liked that? Interesting!

"Let go," she ordered him, her grey eyes flashing angrily. She pulled the curl from his fingers, barely wincing when a few strands got caught around his forefinger and were pulled out at the root. "Why won't you leave me alone?" She could hear the pathetic whine in her voice and had to force herself not to shudder when the tips of his fingers brushed across the sensitive skin of her earlobe.

He loved the fact that she was so responsive to his touch, and couldn't wait to see how she would shudder when he finally persuaded her to shed those miniscule shorts that cupped the curve of her arse just so, and the indecently sheer spaghetti-strapped top she insisted on wearing whenever the group set up camp. "You don't want me to leave you alone; you'd get bored," he responded, stroking his fingers lightly along the line of her jaw before following the curve of her neck and shoulder.

Luna had to struggle to suppress the wave of arousal that coursed through her when his fingers dipped into the neckline of her top, caressing the swell of her breasts. She closed her eyes and turned her head away so that he wasn't able to see the way her body betrayed her.

"I think that you secretly want me to do this," he moved around the table to stand behind her, then leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Deep down you're thinking naughty things about me, Lovegood, I know!" He stroked a path across her shoulders and up into her hairline, taking a moment to massage her scalp and enjoy the quiet moan that left her lips when he touched a sensitive spot at the back of her head.

The moan that left Luna's lips went straight to Marcus' cock, and he had to fight the urge to rub himself against her to relieve a little of the pressure that had started to build. He closed his eyes for a moment in an effort to get his urges under control, but the scent of grapefruit and hibiscus that was uniquely her and had given him plenty of incredible late night and early morning wanks over the last couple of weeks filled his nostrils. He bit back his groan, digging his fingers into her scalp a little harder causing Luna to roll her head against his erection in a way that had him desperately fighting against his baser desires – he had to do something to get them under control.

As if she finally realised how close she had actually allowed him to get, and how vulnerable their positions had made her, she moved away from his touch like a startled deer, "No! Stop! I don't want you to touch me anymore. You _shouldn't_ touch me anymore."

Realising he had probably pushed it just a little, he stepped back and raised his hands in a sign of surrender, though the smirk gracing his lips detracted from his apology, "Sorry, didn't realise your moans meant no!"

Rage turned her vision red; how dare he try and tell her what she did and didn't mean? Standing up she took a step towards him and raised her hand.

The moment her palm made sharp contact against his cheek, her hand leaving a red mark on his tanned skin, he knew that he had to have her. The fire in her eyes ignited a similar passion in him. "I don't think that you meant to do that, Princess!" he told her even as he grabbed her wrists and tugged her until she was flush against him, her hands trapped between their bodies.

"I meant it," she glared at him; her skin flushed, her nostrils flared, and Marcus realised that he had never felt more turned on in his life. She was like one of the Weasley twins' stealth firecrackers; silent but lethal to his usual calm.

Ignoring her initial protest he moved his hands along the length of her arms and up to her shoulders, "Zabini was insane; you're like a firework and I know exactly how to get you going." He bent his head and pressed a light kiss to her jaw, the skin behind her ear, and the corner of her mouth. "You taste like fire, all spice and intensity," he muttered before angling his lips over hers and taking her mouth in a kiss so hot he was surprised the tent didn't go up in flames.

Luna sank into the kiss, her hands wrapping around his muscular forearms in an effort to stay a little grounded even as the rest of the world fell away.

It took mere moments for the balance of power to shift; Luna moved her body a little, not breaking the kiss that was turning her constantly busy brain to lust-addled mush, and put a tiny bit of pressure to Marcus' shoulders.

"Oops, sorry," she giggled as he lost his balance and tripped on the edge of her straw mattress. "Are you okay?"

Marcus looked up at her and smiled, "Absolutely fine," he told her. He couldn't believe how enchanting she looked; her platinum hair shining like a nimbus around her head, a delicate orchid haphazardly placed behind her ear.

"Good. Now take them off," she tapped a trainer-shod foot against the cuff of his trousers in case he were under any misunderstanding about what she was demanding.

Having flicked open the button of his fly, he lifted his arse off the mattress and wriggled until his khakis were over his hips and half-way down his legs. "Are you going to join me?" His voice was low and husky with the lust that had been building since he had first seen her testing passion fruit for ripeness in the market.

Studying him through lowered lashes, Luna walked over to the side of the pallet, pulling her T-shirt off over her head and dropping it to the dusty floor.

Marcus couldn't take his eyes off her, the lacy scallop-edges of her pale jade bra, the way it cupped her feminine curves was entrancing, and he didn't want to stop looking at her.

He gulped when her hands moved to the elasticated waistband of her shorts and she lowered them, then kicked them across the floor until they were tangled with his now discarded trousers. She was wearing a pair of lacy panties that matched the bra, and Marcus could see the faint shadow of her curls beneath the almost translucent material.

In his brief but colourful career as a professional Quidditch player he had been lucky enough to be the recipient of many late night visits from women flinging themselves at him in little flimsy pieces of nothing which had easily been ripped off, but he hadn't found them anywhere near as alluring as he found her.

"Come here," he ordered, crooking a finger at her in summons. He half-expected her to ignore him, so was pleasantly surprised when she moved closer and knelt down on the edge of the pallet, her naked warm skin finally within his reach.

He rolled to rest on one side and traced the edging of her bra before tugging down the cups, revealing the dark blush nipples already hard and desperate for his touch.

"Marcus," she managed to gasp when he leaned closer and suckled on her breast, his teeth lightly nipping at the hard flesh before his tongue soothed; settling into a pattern that soon had her rubbing herself through her knickers until the material was dark and she was mewling desperately, "Please…"

With one final caress of her breast Marcus grasped her hips and tugged until she was straddling his shoulders; the scent of her pussy this close to him was intoxicating and he just had to taste her before he went insane with the need of it.

He nuzzled the damp crotch of her panties aside with his nose and breathed in deeply, savouring the smell of her arousal before tasting, his tongue flicking between her swollen lips and pressing to her clit until she was writhing against his face. He curled his hands around her slender hips to guide her movements; loving the frantic way she was rocking against him to increase the intensity of his ministrations.

Finally he pulled away, tugging at her panties until the delicate lace ripped, then pressing his thumb against her throbbing clit and enjoying the disappointed growl that left her lips when he stopped. His chuckle was a rumble against her inner thigh.

"Stop teasing, Marcus," she demanded as he rolled them, her body now beneath his and completely at his mercy. Lying beneath him, the straps of her bra halfway down her arms and her damp panties rubbing against her in a way that made her eyes cross she looked like a fallen angel and he wanted nothing more than to corrupt her absolutely.

He clasped her wrists and held them above her head with one large hand, leaving her completely at his mercy, and he loved it.

Luna squirmed beneath him, rubbing her naked body against his as she tried to get closer; parting her thighs and wrapping her legs around his hips, gripping him tightly. He stared down at her, his eyes half-open as she arched upwards and her wet knickers rubbed against his erect cock; he had never wanted anyone quite as much as he wanted her right now.

Releasing her hands so that he didn't crush her, Marcus was unable to keep himself from moaning and thrusting against her when she reached between them and curled one small hand around his length and stroked him, the rough calluses on her fingertips adding another mind-blowing dimension to the caress.

"Fuck, Luna…" He couldn't think clearly enough to form proper sentences, her touch was driving him to distraction, and all he wanted was to sink into her and feel her moist warmth clenching around him; he knew it would feel like heaven.

"I thought that's what we were doing," Luna told him, her wide silver eyes boring into his as her fingers continued their teasing of his cock.

"Not quite yet, sweetness," he laughed, thrusting against her and closing his eyes when her grip tightened, increasing the pleasure tenfold. "You've got to stop," he told her gruffly, grabbing her wrist and halting her movements in an effort to regain some semblance of control over the situation.

He took a few deep breaths, burying his nose in the hollow of her throat and inhaling her scent before rolling his hips and nudging at her slick core with the throbbing tip of his erection.

Luna gulped when she felt him slowly start to enter her, her body welcoming his, his cock stretching her. She tilted her hips and tightened her grip around his upper thighs, encouraging him to push deeper, causing a combination of pleasure and pain that made goose bumps erupt along her arms.

Marcus refused to let her look away from him as he rocked against her, sliding inside her inch by agonising inch. He nudged her chin with one finger and pressed his lips to hers as he moved them both ever closer to oblivion.

They were so close that Marcus could see the tiny flecks of blue in her eyes, and feel her heated breath on his face. He groaned when she raised her hands to his shoulders, her nails digging in when he rolled his hips, eliciting a passion-filled moan from her lips when he rubbed against her sensitive clit.

Luna thought that she was going to explode; she felt so stretched and full, and the sensation of him rubbing against her was pushing her closer and closer to the precipice.

Ignoring the rocks that dug into her back through the thin straw pallet, only conscious of the sensation of his throbbing cock inside her and his weight against her, Luna threw her head back and let out a long cry, her nails making crescent marks in the muscles of his shoulders, her heels red pressure marks on his toned thighs. "Please," she gasped, "more…"

Marcus thrust against her roughly, pushed over the edge by the sting of her nails in his flesh, the flutter of her cunt around his cock was something he could easily become addicted to; the sensation of her slickness pulling him in deeper sending him over the edge. With a roar that sent the birds on the top of the tent soaring upwards in a flap of wings he came, and the feeling of his pulsing length within her and his body shuddering above hers had her breath catching in her throat before she released his name on a shaky sigh.

Luna couldn't help but giggle when she heard rather than felt Marcus snore against her shoulder. She patted him on the shoulder, "Marcus, you're getting heavy," she told him, attempting to get him to move. "Marcus?" When no amount of prodding aided her in waking him, she burrowed out from underneath him and moved to stand by the side of the pallet. Stretching for a moment she allowed herself some time to admire the tight curve of his arse and muscular thighs. Pulling on another t-shirt, replacing her torn panties with a pair of clean serviceable cotton ones, and untangling her shorts from his trousers, she made a mental note to write a letter to Ginny thanking her for the lace and then walked out of the tent, a smile on her face and a bounce in her step. Marcus Flint was definitely exactly what the doctor ordered, and she intended to get herself a repeat prescription.


	2. A Spoonful of Sugar

**Disclaimer:** These characters are not mine; they are the property of JK Rowling, her various publishers, and Warner Bros. I make no money from this story.

**Author Note:** This story was written for the bewitching-fiction dot com Beltane Challenge. The story had to contain the following five words: _scone, charger, rooftop, clay, Beltane._

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Walking out onto the flower-covered rooftop garden Luna couldn't help but feel just a little bit of self-satisfaction as she looked out at all that she had managed to achieve in such a short period of time. Sitting down at the small bistro table she'd managed to persuade Marcus wasn't too small for their little piece of the Amazon in the middle of the city, she picked up the clotted cream smothered scone and took a bite, savouring the fluffy morsel and letting out a soft moan of satisfaction as the thick cream melted on her tongue.

"Don't make that noise unless you want me to come over there," Marcus looked over from the other side of the roof where he was planting another rare variety of crocus in a dark blue clay pot.

"What's the worst you can do?" she took another bite of the scone and closed her eyes to savour the lightness on her tongue.

Smirking, Marcus stood and walked over to stand behind his Luna, and wrapped his arms around her. "You going to at least share that with me, Princess?"

"Nope," she informed him as she popped the final clotted cream coated piece in her mouth and turned her head to grin at him. "There are more in the kitchen; just don't expect me to go down and get them."

Pressing a kiss to her forehead he walked back to his planting and continued to carefully pot the delicate blooms. "You're sure to want another one later, I can wait…"

Luna leaned back on the lounger and, with one hand protecting her eyes from the brightness of the sun, continued to admire the play of muscles on his back as he worked. "Do you think you'll be finished before everyone gets here?" She loved watching him work; especially when he took his shirt off so she could admire him.

"If a certain witch didn't keep on distracting me I would have been finished hours ago," he kept on planting, taking his time to make sure everything was planted exactly as he had planned.

"Not sure that you mind the distraction all that much, Marcus." She stood up and ambled over to wrap a few wayward Chinese Love Vines around their frame; blushing when the leaves twined about her wrists and ankles, securing her in a vulnerable and seductive position against the wall of the writer's room Luna had set up when they had moved into the house.

"It looks like the flowers agree with me, Sweetness," Marcus chuckled as he walked to stand in front of her, stroking a mud-covered finger down her cheek.

"Get them to let me go," she told him, her voice a little breathless when he tugged at the neckline of her pale pink sundress, closing her eyes when the thin straps snapped and the heat of his mouth closed over one hardened nipple.

"Why on earth would I do that when you're exactly where I want you? You ate the entire scone, so it's only fair that I eat all of you." His words sent a thrill of anticipation down her spine and had her tingling all over.

"Well," she murmured as she rocked her hips forward, relieved that she hadn't bothered to put any knickers on that morning, "what sort of person would I be if I denied you that?" And then his mouth was on her, his tongue teasing her, and all she was capable of was breathy incomprehensible gasps and his name as his caresses sent her rocketing to the furthest stars.

"You are sweeter than any dessert," he told her as he moved to stand between her shaking legs, one hand unbuttoning his fly. "I can't get enough of you…" He moved to stand between her shaking legs, unbuttoning his fly before lifting her, curling his hands under her thighs to support her. The vines snapped as he helped her to wrap her slender legs around his hips, and he sank inside her pulsing heat, inch by agonisingly pleasurable inch.

He was still holding her, breathing heavily as he struggled to come back down to earth, his softening cock slipping from inside her, when they both heard the doorbell go. "Shit!" he exclaimed, his gruff voice full of his frustration. "Whose idea was it to have a Beltane gathering?" Muttering the spell to release her wrists from the vines, Marcus fixed the straps on her dress, helped her to smooth the floaty material down and then hastily buttoned his fly as he rushed down the stairs to the ground floor to greet their first guest.

Pulling open the heavy front door he pasted a smile on his lips and was pleasantly surprised when familiar hands passed him a large child bottle of vodka. "Happy Beltane, mate. Figured we could both get pissed." Theo barged past his friend and stepped into the light hallway. "So where's everyone else?" He carried on walking further into the house, glancing into every room, but noticing little. "Have to say I was surprised to hear from you; figured you'd been abducted by some tribe of mystics or something."

Grinning as he walked through to the kitchen to put the vodka in the icebox to keep cool, Marcus how his friend would react when he realised that this wasn't an opportunity for a drunken reunion. "No such luck, Theo. Just decided it was time to come home." He picked up the plate of scones Luna had placed under a stasis spell on the table; then headed across to the stairwell hidden behind a bookcase filled with colourful cookery books and photographs of all the places that they had travelled to over the last 18-months. "I figured we'd sit up on the roof."

"Sure, I'm up for a laugh." Theo followed, expecting tiles, beer bottles and overflowing ashtrays, something resembling the flat that they had shared; he couldn't have been more surprised at what he saw when he ducked his head and walked through the low French doors out onto something that closely resembled a tropical paradise, but that wasn't the thing that shocked him the most. He took a healthy mouthful of the honeyed mead that Marcus poured and handed to him, and stared, astounded, at the veritable jungle he found himself in, and the unidentifiable blonde in the almost sheer dress in the stunning metal and glass structure balancing somewhat precariously at the very edge of the roof. "What the fuck?"

Marcus grinned at his friend's shock and patted him on the back rather sharply when Theo began to quote quite convincingly. "Shit, Marcus, not so hard!"

Luna had been checking on the butterflies in the rooftop conservatory, talking to them as a way to give Marcus some time to catch up with his friend, but when the doorbell rang again she ignored their guest's look of open-mouthed astonishment and rushed past – sparing a moment to press a kiss to Marcus' cheek – hair flying out wildly behind her.

"Shut your mouth, Theo, mate. We have some pretty exotic bugs up here to go with the plants and I know you wouldn't fancy eating any of them…"

"Was that Looney Lovegood? What's she doing here? Have you suddenly become friends with Potter's motley crew of oddballs and freaks?" Theo didn't notice the way that Marcus tightened his fists until his knuckles turned white, but he was unable to miss the way that his friend's jaw was clenched and his eyes narrowed.

"No need to get all Knight on a Charger and rescue me, Marcus," Luna informed him as she walked back up the stairs and onto the roof, followed by a strangely nervous-looking Hermione. "I'm sure that Theo is just uncomfortable because of the Fluttering Hummers in the August Blossoms." She walked over and wrapped an arm around his waist, resting her head against his side as she focused her wide-eyed attention on both of their uncomfortable guests.

Theo definitely felt uncomfortable; that much was certain. He had to bite back a laugh when he noticed Granger roll her eyes at Looney's mention of yet another made up creature, and he realised that he wasn't the only one who was surprised to see the miss-matched couple together. "So…" he started, usually he had no problem with silence, but this was rather awkward.

"So…" Hermione continued, shifting from one foot to the other and nervously twisting her fingers as though struggling to figure out how to make this gathering a little bit less like a painful double date. "How did you meet?"

Theo glanced over at her and raised one eyebrow; had she really just asked that? Knowing his friend, and knowing something _of_ Lovegood, he had no doubt their tale was not fluffy bunnies and tea parties.

Luna shrugged, grinned up at Marcus and wrapped her arm tighter around his side as he returned the embrace, "escape," was his response. In truth it had been an escape; he had needed to get away from the banal and she had definitely been that, and more!

"Oh," Hermione responded as if she actually understood; which, from the look on her face, she clearly didn't. For someone so bright sometimes she really didn't have a clue, but for some reason Theo actually found that enchanting; this emotion had him casting a surreptitious spell over the mead he had been drinking, just in case it had been spiked with something. "So…happy Beltane," she finally declared; picking up the only full glass of mead that was left on the table. "_Beannaigh gach rud agus gach duine; gach mo talún agus mo thimpeallacht. Déith Breataine a chruthú agus a thabhairt am soal go léitr, iarr mé do do beannachtaí ar an lá seo de tine naofa_." She ignored, as was her wont, the stunned looks of the other three and took a sip of her drink, wiping the corner of her mouth delicately with a single finger when a drop trailed a sticky streak to her chin.

"Thank you," Luna disentangled herself from Marcus' possessive grip and hugged her friend, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes as she realised, for the first time, how much she had missed spending time with the so-called freaks and oddballs that had made up her social circle since before the war. As Hermione wrapped her own arms around Luna's slender frame she realised that her friend was no longer quite that slender; the floaty dress she was wearing hid it rather well, the empire bodice skimming over Luna's curves, but there was no mistaking the hardened bump of her stomach, or the fact, now that she had noticed it, that it was not small.

"Oh my God," Hermione squeaked, aware that this was both incredibly out of character and more something that Lavender would do, but she couldn't hide her surprise. "When?"

Marcus watched as his friend finally realised what the two girls were chattering rather excitedly about, and waited for him to say something. "Is this the reason you came back?"

"Are you kidding? Luna had everything planned; she'd even found some tribal shaman somewhere along the Amazon who had actually agreed to help when the time came! I guess I missed here more than I wanted to admit." With a shrug and a small smirk in Luna's direction Marcus finished his glass of mead in two mouthfuls. "Want something stronger? I get the feeling that they're going to be talking for a while."

Theo nodded in agreement, anything was better than watching women go on about things he had no interest in, no matter how pretty one of them happened to be. Sensing Theo's confusion, Marcus led the way back down to the kitchen where Marcus collected the bottle of vodka and a large photo album; at his friend's confused look Marcus simply shrugged. "Thought you might want to have a look at some of the weird stuff, seriously mate, there were whole tribes over there that walked around starkers all the time…made for a very interesting few years!"

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**Translation of the Gaelic Beltane prayer extract that Hermione gave:**

Bless everything and everyone; all my land and my surroundings. Great Gods who create and give life to all, I ask for your blessings on this day of holy fire.


End file.
